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AUGUST 26,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:53 P.M. ET: 

MAJOR BROADCAST NEWS – From Hollywood Reporter:  MSNBC is moving reverend and talk-show host Al Sharpton's PoliticsNation to Sundays, network president Phil Griffin said in a memo on Wednesday. Its last weekday airing will be on Sept. 4.  "After four terrific years – or as Reverend Sharpton said, 'a full first term' – PoliticsNation is ready for its next chapter. Beginning on Sunday, October 4, the show will move to Sunday mornings at 8:00 am," Griffin wrote.  The show has aired at 6 pm ET on weekdays and will now move from five days a week to one day a week.   It is sickening that this race baiter and clown is even taken seriously.  It is outrageous that he has his own show at all.  Clearly, the show has failed.  You don't go from five days a week to a single program at 8 a.m. Sunday because you're a hit.

TAKE THAT, IRAN AGREEMENT LOVERS – From WaPo:   A group of nearly 200 retired generals and admirals sent a letter to Congress on Wednesday urging lawmakers to reject the Iran nuclear agreement, which they say threatens national security.  The letter is the latest in a blizzard of missives petitioning Congress either to support or oppose the agreement with Iran, which would lift sanctions if Iran pared back its nuclear program. Letters have come from ad hoc groupings of rabbis, nuclear scientists, arms-control and nonproliferation experts — and now, retired senior military officers, many of whom have worked in the White House during various administrations dating to the 1980s.  The letter, addressed to Republican and Democratic leaders in the Senate and the House, is a response to one sent last week by three dozen retired senior military officers who support the nuclear deal.  So let's see, the aye side had 36 retired senior officers supporting the Iran agreement, and the opponents of the deal come in with 200.  That's more than five to one against.  I'd say the right wins hands down.  It won't matter, though.  The deal will go through because Democrats are lining up to worship the greater glory of Barack.

OH, THIS LOOKS JUICY – From townhall.com:   Late last week rumors started swirling about an undercover investigation of Hillary Clinton's campaign being conducted by James O'Keefe's Project Veritas, an organization responsible for holding a number of government officials accountable for bad behavior. The Clinton camp was put on high alert, told to look for suspicious behavior and to be aware they may be under video surveillance.  We now know the rumors are true. O'Keefe has confirmed Project Veritas journalists have in fact conducted an undercover video investigation into Clinton's campaign and have plenty of footage to share.  The first video shows a paid campaign staffer telling a volunteer that they only want to register voters who will vote for Hillary, a Democrat, when the law requires voters be able to register regardless of their political affiliation or support for a certain candidate.   I see the vultures flying over Hillary's campaign.  Each one has been fed parts of her e-mails.  Yummy.

August 26,  2015     Permalink

OUR WONDERFUL NEW ALLY – AT 11:54 A.M. ET:  This story will undoubtedly stimulate many readers to rush to their phones to book vacation flights to Tehran.  From the Jerusalem Post: 

NEW YORK -- The people of Iran "lose sleep" over the prospect of Western culture permeating their society, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday in a message on Twitter.

Khamenei, who has cautiously endorsed the nuclear agreement, said that "Zionists and Americans’ enmity toward the Islamic Revolution" of 1979 "has not declined and our officials must not forget this fact."

"Tactics of hostility and detriment might have changed and been revised, but all authorities must beware of playing role in enemy’s plots," he said. "Under any circumstances," he continued, Iran's leadership must "take clear Revolutionary stances and frankly express Imam’s principles and Revolutionary positions against enemies."

Iran's leadership, including Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, have increased their use of Twitter in recent months to spread their positions on the nuclear issue. Twitter is formally blocked in Iran, but several journalists from Iran's state-run media are allowed accounts, and many Iranian citizens have found loopholes to secure access.

On July 13, Rouhani's Twitter account broke news that a nuclear deal had been reached one day before it was formally announced. Khamenei's account has increased its activity since the deal was signed.

"Economic woes won’t cause anxiety, but cultural problems agitate one to lose sleep over them," Khamenei said on Wednesday. "All countries pay attention to cultural products; so, if some products contradict principles and basics, they must be banned with no shame."

COMMENT:  This won't bother European businessmen a bit, and you be sure that some of our American colleagues will soon be in Tehran, toasting the revolution. 

As Lenin said, capitalists would sell the Soviet Union the rope with which it would hang the capitalists.  Same principle applies to Tehran.

August 26, 2015       Permalink

TERROR WARNING – AT 10:55 A.M. ET:  New York's former, and colorful, police commissioner, warns of new terror attacks in the United States in the wake of the thwarted attack aboard a French passenger train.  From Newsmax: 

The bloodbath that was narrowly averted on Amsterdam-to-Paris commuter train last week was just one of the growing number of terror attacks occurring globally — and more are on the way, former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik says.

"This is going on worldwide.... We're seeing a constant increase of these types of events, whether it's here in the United States, whether it's in France or Spain or England," Kerik said Tuesday to J.D. Hayworth on "Newsmax Prime."

"ISIS, al-Qaida and all these radical extremist groups are using social media and the internet to recruit, to motivate, to inspire others, to do their dirty work. That's what we saw in this event.
"You're going to see much more like this to come and it's something we have to get used to. If anybody's surprised by it, they shouldn't be."

On Monday, French President Francois Hollande awarded France's highest honor to off-duty U.S. servicemen Alek Skarlatos and Spencer Stone, their student friend Anthony Sadler, and Chris Norman, a British business consultant.

They tackled and tied up a 25-year-old Moroccan identified as Ayoub El Khazzani, who boarded the high-speed train wielding a Kalashnikov assault rifle, a Luger automatic pistol, ammunition, and a box-cutter. Authorities say the gunman had watched a jihadi video only minutes before.

"I don't think anybody really can grasp the amount of damage that could have been done had these three kids not been on that train and this guy jacked the first round into that gun and started shooting," Kerik said.

COMMENT:  We just had an attack in Chattanooga, but it didn't seem to bother Americans all that much.  I think it will take another mass-casualty event to wake us up, if even that will do it.  When these attacks in the U.S. do occur, much of the mainstream media goes into politically correct mode, telling us they really can't determine the motive of the shooter.  It's pathetic, and we go back to sleep.

August 26, 2015       Permalink

CLINTON, WORSE AND WORSE – AT 10:15 A.M. ET:  Can Hillary Clinton survive?  Can she avoid indictment?  Have we ever had to ask questions like that about a major presidential prospect?  From Fox: 

One of the emails that triggered the FBI probe into Hillary Clinton’s server contained classified intelligence from three different agencies, Fox News has learned – which could mean the State Department violated a President Obama-signed executive order by authorizing its release.

That 2009 order, EO 13526, lays out the rules for "classifying, safeguarding and declassifying national security information." It states that the authority to declassify rests with the intelligence agency that originated the information.

"Information shall be declassified or downgraded by … the official who authorized the original classification ... [or] the originator's current successor," the order says.

One of the two emails that sparked the FBI probe was an April 2011 email from Clinton confidante Huma Abedin that, Fox News has learned, contained intelligence from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the National Security Agency (NSA), and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), which oversees aerial imagery, including satellites.

Despite this fact and despite the executive order, the State Department publicly released the email and its intelligence -- which was not theirs to declassify -- onto its website in May as part of the initial release of documents on the 2012 Benghazi attack.

Fox News is told that in late spring, all three agencies confirmed to the intelligence community inspector general that the intelligence was classified when it was sent four years ago by Abedin to Clinton's private account, and remains classified to this day.

Clinton’s campaign and the State Department have maintained that the email was not classified and have framed the issue as a difference of opinion.

"What you're seeing now is a disagreement between agencies saying, 'You know what, they should've.' And the other saying, 'No they shouldn't.' That has nothing to do with me," Clinton told reporters last week.

COMMENT:  It's such a sleazy situation.  Anyone in a position of authority knows that you always err on the side of protecting national security.  The Clintons have gone through life believing that they play by a different set of rules, that they're special, above the nation.  Obama has the same attitude.  We've seen the result.

August 26, 2015       Permalink

ET TU, CAMELOT? – AT 9:21 A.M. ET:  It seems that Caroline Kennedy, our ambassador to Japan, has been taking business administration lessons from Hillary Clinton.  From the Washington Times:

The State Department’s internal watchdog leveled biting criticism at the management style of U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy in a new audit on Tuesday, citing “confusion among staff” and “major management challenges” in key offices at the Tokyo embassy.

And in an echo of the email woes plaguing former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, the inspection by the department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) specifically faulted Ms. Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy and President Obama’s personal pick for the job, and her aides for using “personal email accounts to send and receive messages containing official business.”

The 64-page audit, which included 65 recommendations to improve operations, identified a number of other shortcomings, including a focus by embassy analysts on daily reporting at the expense of developing contacts in the country; an uneven performance from diplomatic satellite offices; and hiring levels in the political, economic and consular sections that were “greater than [the] workload warrants.”

The inspectors noted that Ms. Kennedy’s celebrity and her popularity in Japan have put stress on embassy resources and public affairs operations. The post is considered one of the most prestigious in U.S. diplomatic ranks, with Japan ranking as America’s fourth-largest trading partner and the host to some 50,000 U.S. troops.

COMMENT:  We'll follow this.  Caroline Kennedy was made ambassador to Japan, with no prior experience that would qualify her – maybe she owned a point-and-shoot Nikon – after a failed political bid.  She'd wanted to be appointed to the U.S. Senate from New York to fill out the term of Hillary Clinton, when Clinton resigned to become secretary of state.  Instead, the governor at the time, David Patterson, appointed Kirsten Gillibrand, who has surged on to become a nonentity.  There is informed speculation that the Democratic Party didn't want another Kennedy in a position of power. 

I wonder if the inspector general's report is entirely legit, or is part of another attempt to keep Caroline in her place.  I also wonder if she'll be punished.

August 26,  2015     Permalink 

AUGUST 25,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

AND THE NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN MEMORIAL PRIZE GOES TO... – From Times of Israel:   British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Monday he believed in Iranian’s genuine desire to “turn a page” with the West and develop better ties, the Telegraph reported.  Hammond spoke at the end of a two-day visit to Tehran and a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to mark the reopening of the two nations’ respective embassies after a break of several years.  While he stressed that the countries’ relations remained complex and difficult, he said Iran as a regional power was too important to ignore on Middle East issues.  “It’s hard to see what is the point of advocating dialog with someone who you know has a very different view of the world from you, unless you are anticipating some give and take,” he said.  He added that the visit had changed his view of the Islamic republic.  I'm surprised he didn't say he was bringing us peace in our times.  What is it about British diplomats?

MORE NUTSINESS FROM BRITAIN – From Fox:   Hard-left British politician Jeremy Corbyn, who has sought warmer ties with Putin’s Russia and compared U.S. troops to ISIS, appears to be leading the race to take over one of Britain’s two major parties – a development that could have serious repercussions for the "special relationship" between the U.K. and U.S.  The Labor Party – one of two main parties along with Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party – lost the general election in May under the leadership of the left-wing Ed Miliband, who resigned, triggering a vote for a new leader. Many analysts assumed the center-left party would move back to the center with a new leader in the mold of former Prime Minister Tony Blair.  The analysts appear to have been wrong.  Oh, that's okay.  Obama will love Corbyn.  Remember, it was Obama who sent back to Britain the bust of Winston Churchill that rested in the Oval Office, in an obvious snub.  Now Obama can order a bust of Jeremy Corbyn.

WELL, YOU'VE GOT TO INVEST IN SOMETHING – From space.com:   Could the first Mars colony be called Buffettville, or Zuckerburgh?  The Netherlands-based nonprofit Mars One aims to establish a permanent settlement on the Red Planet, beginning with the touchdown of the first four pioneers in 2027. The biggest challenges facing the project are financial rather than technical, so a big donation from a deep-pocketed person concerned about his or her legacy could make a huge difference, Mars One representatives said.  Mars One "is so ambitious and — I think 'crazy' is the right word — that we might actually get a phone call from a billionaire who says, 'I want to make this happen. I want the first city on Mars to be called Gatesville or Slim City," said Mars One co-founder and CEO Bas Lansdorp, presumably referring to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helu.  Believe me, it'll be called Trump Tower. 

August 25, 2015       Permalink

SIGN OF THE TIMES – AT 11:58 A.M. ET:   Need a cop today?  If you're in Dallas, you may have to wait.  From CBS: 

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – The head of the Dallas Police Association tells CBS 11 News that longer 911 response times can be blamed in part by officers being mentally beaten down.

“The bottom line is response times are up, violent crime is up, and officers are fed up,” said Ron Pinkston, president of the Dallas Police Association.

Many of the 3,000 officers he represents are moving slower because of concerns over safety and fears about violating department policies, Pinkston said.

“The motivation is a little lacking,” he said. “I think it’s just the fear of doing the right thing and that they are going to get disciplined for doing that.”

Pinkston said officers are too often being reprimanded for the way they drive during high speed chases or for the difficult decisions they have to make when using deadly force.

“The only way we are going to get this response times to turn around is get a different management style or get a different manager,” Pinkston said.

Dallas Police Chief Brown told city council members Monday that new training requirements are responsible for the slower response to priority one calls – now at eight minutes and 13 seconds – the highest in at least three years.

Priority two calls take more than 22 minutes despite a city goal of 12 minutes.

Pinkston said Monday’s promotion of more high-ranking officers takes more patrol men and women off the street and leaves those out there feeling vulnerable.

“When they see criminal suspects that look suspicious, they are not going to engage those suspects from fear that nobody’s going to support them,” Pinkston said.

COMMENT:  Thank you, President Obama, for helping to create this situation with your anti-police attitudes.  And thank you CNN for harping on every "incident," whether valid or not. 

There are police practices that can stand some improvement.  And, yes, there are occasional uses of excessive force.  But, overwhelmingly, the police in most cities do a solid job every day, at risk of their lives.  And police lives matter.

August 25, 2015       Permalink

HILLARY FADES – AT 10:24 A.M. ET:  The party is turning on her.  The talk show guys are turning on her.   And the public seems to be turning on her.   From Rasmussen:

Growing national security questions about Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server during her time as secretary of State are drowning out much of her message as a presidential candidate and causing many of her fellow Democrats to worry about the future of her campaign. Is it time for Clinton to put her campaign on temporary hold?

Voters are almost evenly divided on that question: the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 46% of Likely U.S. Voters believe Clinton should suspend her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination until all of the legal questions about her use of the private e-mail server are resolved. Nearly as many (44%) disagree. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Even one-in-four Democrats (24%) agree that the front-runner for their party’s nomination should suspend her campaign for the time being. But that compares to 73% of Republicans and 46% of voters not affiliated with either major party.

Forty-five percent (45%) of all voters - but only 18% of Democrats - now consider the national security questions raised about Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server while serving as secretary of State to be a serious scandal. Twenty-eight percent (28%) of likely voters consider the matter an embarrassing situation, while nearly as many (23%) say it’s no big deal.

At the same time, Vice President Joe Biden is reportedly moving closer to a decision whether to challenge Clinton for the Democratic nomination because of her e-mail woes. Our latest Hillary Meter shows the former first lady losing ground noticeably among voters, but Democrats weren’t overly enthusiastic about a Biden run earlier this month.

COMMENT:  The numbers for Clinton get worse and worse, and we're only in August of the year before the election.  Obviously, if she's exonerated by the e-mail investigation, she might get back on track.  But the perception is that she's a weakened candidate who arouses little passion.

And yet, Rasmussen's warning about Joe Biden should also be taken seriously.  The hard base wants Elizabeth Warren but the hard base doesn't win elections.

August 25, 2015       Permalink

MARKET – AT 9:58 A.M. ET:  The Dow is, at this moment, up almost 300 points from yesterday's close.   So we're seeing the expected rebound.  But that number changes by the second.  I wouldn't, so to speak, take it to the bank.  From NBC: 

The wild ride isn't over on Wall Street — and this time the big move is up.

Investors were as hungry to buy on Tuesday as they were desperate to sell the day before. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 350 points at the opening bell, the biggest rally of the year on Wall Street.

China relieved investors by stepping in overnight to cut interest rates and prop up the world's second-largest economy. Worries about economic growth in China have driven days of chaotic selling in stock markets around the world.

COMMENT:  And next week it'll be another explanation.  Commentators will gravely inform us that investors, or, as they say in New York, investahs. are looking at this, or that.  And they conjure up this image of wise investahs poring over charts and graphs.

Felix Rohatyn, one of the statesmen of Wall Street, once called the stock market a casino.  And, from what I've seen, that's what it is.  I don't see too much wise investing.  A lot of playing and guessing.  But there will be deep analysis in the morning.

I do, though, see across the internet a genuine apprehension about days to come.  Our economic "recovery," if there is one, is fragile.  And a large drop in the market can lead to a return of caution, and the laying off of employees.  And an impact on the presidential election.

August 25, 2015       Permalink

IT ISN'T JUST ISRAEL – AT 8:58 A.M. ET:  Obama and his followers like to say that the only opponent of the Iran deal is the Israeli government.  That is dishonest, to say the least.  It's no secret that the Arab gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, are opposed, even though they made pro forma public statements of mild support.  And now we're hearing rumblings that France, which always had doubts, is actually against the deal, but will publicly support it.  From The Wall Street Journal:

A month later, this much is clear about the approach of the other European parties to the deal: Neither German Chancellor Angela Merkel nor U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron have made an explicit link between Congress’s possible September vote against the agreement and anything resembling the Obama administration’s notions of instant cataclysm.

After initially nodding “yes” to the deal, the French have partially reverted to form reflecting their traditional hard-nosed antinuclear proliferation position. It’s OK in Paris to acknowledge that the accord is an oversold mediocrity, and its character nonhistoric. Mr. Obama’s notions of co-opting a suddenly tranquilized Iran to embrace the Forces of Good in the Middle East can get characterized as naive. American sanctions experts say big French banks have informed them they are in no rush to return to Iran.

Citing the profound weaknesses of an agreement that allows controls over Iran to end after 15 years and the mullahs to keep an absurdly high number of centrifuges, a French official told me he graded the accord as C-plus. He expressed concern about America’s willingness over time to continue paying the enormous expense of its vast Iranian surveillance operations. And he also said that the deal’s concessions to Tehran made a pressing reality of Saudi Arabia’s quest for an atomic weapon.

One of the toughest of the country’s hard-nosed security experts, Bruno Tertrais, wrote last month in the Canadian newspaper Le Devoir that “with pressure from the Obama administration” European negotiators’ original intent deteriorated from a rollback of Iran’s nuclear ambitions to their containment.

Camille Grand, director of the Foundation for Strategic Research—a think tank with a reputation for telling truths the French government might prefer to avoid—told me how this slippage had come about. “From 2013 on,” he said, “the Americans gave the impression they wanted the deal more than Iran did. The administration put more pressure on its friends in the negotiations than on the Iranians.”

And...

So how come France didn’t lie across the tracks to block the accord? My explanation:

Because an economically nonperforming President Hollande couldn’t say “no” to French industry wanting a shot at new Iranian contracts. Because France no longer musters the international political levers to shoulder splendid isolation. And because it would not assume the cost of being regarded as Benjamin Netanyahu’s single objective ally.

And now, French buyer’s remorse? In theory, a bit. But not enough to try holding off on its own what France knows is a lousy Iran nuclear deal.

COMMENT:   The truth comes out, doesn't it?  The real villain here, aside from Obama and Kerry themselves, are the sheep in the Democratic Party, who are going along for the greater glory of Barack.  Nancy Pelosi, a moonbat if I ever saw one, is leading the battle in Congress for Democratic support of what she calls a "diplomatic masterpiece." 

Republicans must hold Democrats in Congress responsible for their vote.  Let's see if the Republican Party can muster up the spine to do just that.

August 25,  2015     Permalink